Hope, the migrating whimbrel, flies back to the states
Published: April 24, 2010
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Hope, a rare whimbrel, has returned to Virginia after wintering on St. Croix.
The small brown bird named Hope has returned to Virginia after wintering on St. Croix. In less than a year, the bird has travelled more than 14,170 miles and is the star of a research project to study the migration patterns of whimbrels.
Hope is one of seven whimbrels being tracked by researchers from the Nature Conservancy and the Center for Conservation Biology at the College of William and Mary in Virginia.
Whimbrels are shorebirds that live in wetland areas and are highly migratory, traveling for thousands of miles. Between their long flights, the birds stop to rest and feed for two or three weeks in “staging areas.” At the staging areas they build up body fat to provide stored energy they will need on their long journeys.
The collaborative research project aims to discover migratory routes that connect breeding and winter areas and to identify migratory staging areas that are critical to the conservation of the declining species.
Last May 19, researchers attached a 9.5-gram solar-powered satellite transmitter to Hope while she was stopping on the Delmarva Peninsula of Virginia. She left Virginia on May 26 and flew to the western shore of James Bay in Canada, where she remained for three weeks before flying to the MacKenzie River near Alaska and then on to the Beaufort Sea, north of Canada’s Northwest Territories. She stayed there for more than two weeks before crossing to Canada’s Hudson Bay. Hope then flew on to Southampton Island in upper Hudson Bay for three weeks before leaving on a non-stop four-day flight of more than 3,500 miles to St. Croix.
She arrived at St. Croix’s Great Pond on Aug. 14, but researchers did not think she would stay there long. Hope surprised and delighted local birders by spending the entire winter at Great Pond.
“We thought she was going to stop over, then probably head down to Brazil,” Bryan Watts, director of the Center for Conservation Biology said. “But it sounds like there is habitat around Great Pond and there are small numbers that winter there.”
Watts said while it was a surprise to see Hope winter on St. Croix, it seems that she did well and stored up enough body fat to fuel her long flight back to Virginia.
He said of all the whimbrels in the tracking program, Hope is their star pupil.
“This bird has carried the transmitter longer than any other bird,” he said.
Some transmitters fall off. Others simply stop transmitting data. Watts said they are hoping Hope’s transmitter will stay on long enough to track her on her way back to the breeding grounds in Alaska or northern Canada, so the researchers can have a full year’s worth of information.
Her long-range migration can be tracked online, and each of her stops is dated.
While Hope was in the Great Pond area — which consists of mudflats and wetlands rich in food sources for a whimbrel — she was spotted several times by birders and local scientists. She was identifiable by a bright green flag on her leg.
The thin, curved beak of a whimbrel is the same shape as a fiddler crab tunnel, which allows the birds to easily grab the crustacean from its hiding place.
Great Pond is home to more than 75 species of birds as well as fish, crabs and other creatures. It also is a breeding ground for the endangered least tern.
After wintering on St. Croix, Hope left the territory April 9 and flew east of Puerto Rico and northwest out over the open ocean for nearly 1,500 miles. She landed near Cape Lookout and then followed the shoreline around the Outer Banks of North Carolina and up to the lower Delmarva Peninsula, making landfall on April 11. According to the researchers at the Center for Conservation Biology, the trip covered approximately 1,660 miles in less than two days. She returned to the same marsh where she was captured last year.
“Hope has confirmed how much the life cycle of this species is dependent on specific staging sites and that their migrations are surprisingly structured,” a news release from the Center for Conservation Biology stated.
According to the center, satellite tracking is only one aspect of the investigation into whimbrel migration. During the past two years, the Center for Conservation in partnership with the Nature Conservancy has used conventional transmitters to examine stopover duration, conducted aerial surveys to estimate seasonal numbers, collected feather samples to locate summer and winter areas through stable-isotope analysis, and initiated a whimbrel watch program.
Continued research is planned to further link populations across staging, breeding, and wintering areas and to determine the ecological requirements of whimbrels. The project is funded by the Nature Conservancy, the Center for Conservation Biology, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Virginia Coastal Zone Management Program, the Toronto Ornithological Club, the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority and the Northern Neck Audubon Society.
Anyone interested in tracking Hope’s journey can visit www.ccb-wm.org/programs/migration/Whimbrel/whimbrel.htm.
— Contact reporter Aldeth Lewin at 774-8772 ext. 311 or e-mail alewin@dailynews.vi.
